Moldings Guide – Floor Molding and Trim

It’s an accomplishment to finish a flooring installation, but there’s one more step to completing a new floor—the moldings and trim! The floor moldings provide coverage over expansion gaps and create a finished look around the edges of a room, both on the wall and transitioning to other rooms. Let’s explore the floor molding types and what you will need for your project. It’s much easier to order moldings, trim and transition pieces with your flooring, so deciding what you need first will help your install run smoothly.

Molding Type: Wall Base Molding

Wall base moldings are a nice decorative touch to add around the edges of your room. Covering the expansion gap, this molding style provides a sophisticated finish in a variety of colors to match your floor. Using glue or finishing nails, you can easily fasten this molding to the wall.

Wall Base Installation:

Molding Type: Quarter Round Molding

Quarter round moldings are a versatile perimeter molding style that adds a finishing touch, while covering the expansion gap. Use this floor molding as an addition to a wall base, around cabinets and at the base of steps. Quarter round moldings can be color matched to your flooring for a uniform look.

Quarter Round Installation:

Molding Type: End Cap / Square Nose Molding

An end cap molding has several uses, such as transitioning from laminate to carpet, fireplaces and exterior doors. With one raised side, it caps off the flooring allowing protection from debris and damage.

End Cap Installation:

Molding Type: T-Molding

T-Moldings are used for even height surfaces. For rooms larger than 30 ft. long laminate installation, you will need to have a transition molding from any floating floor to stabilize the planks. T-moldings are also commonly used in doorways and hallway transitions.

T-Molding Installation:

Molding Type: Reducer Molding

Similar to an end cap, the reducer is molding that is sloped on one side to transition between floors of different heights. This molding slopes at the end creating a seamless transition from floor to floor.

Reducer Installation:

Molding Type: Stair Nose

With a laminate or hardwood installation on stairs, a stair nose molding perfectly caps the edge of the stairs for a decorative and functional look. It will create a smooth surface between the new flooring and stair edges.

Stair Nose Molding Installation:

Molding Type: Versa Edge Stair Nose

This is a stair nose molding from Versatrim that is a thinner, universal stair nose compatible for installations with any flooring type. This will create more of a streamlined look to your stairs, simply installing over where the two edges of flooring meet.

Versa Edge Stair Nose Installation:

Molding Type: Quick-Step Incizio 5-in-1 Molding

Quick-Step’s revolutionary 5-in-1 moldings set comes with a slicer that can specifically cut the molding to your needs. It is able to mimic a t-molding, square nose, hard surface reduce, carpet reducer and stair nose.

Molding Warranties:

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